Game Design Project in Mythology Class

Melinda Newcombe teaches the Mythology class at our high school. We teamed up earlier in the month as part of the Go Beyond Challenge I raised to myself and several teachers this school year.

In this overview, I'll link to a couple games that students made in this Mythology game design project. I'll also explain what we learned and give links to resources. 

Key Challenge to Remember:  The course content has to be the goal. If the students are thinking and talking about the content, it's a win no matter how the games turn out. 

We considered this project a big success in a lot of ways. It is a unique blend of content, game creation, collaboration and technology. Students and the teachers really enjoyed it throughout. I know from experience, though, that it can be overwhelming to take on the first time. This is not just a PDF download that you print and hand out. I'll list some tips at the end for anyone considering it.

My key takeaway: Working with this class convinced me this is a great project for a group of students who are interested in making a game. While it worked very well for us with a whole class, that brings a lot of obstacles you won't want to tackle until you've gone through the process a few times.

Overview

I put a lot of information about the game design project in general on my Game Design Project Packs site. Keep that link handy in case you want to use this someday. It provides a number of simple game options that the students can redesign based on the lesson content.  

We worked on the project for six class periods.

The overall process is:

• Learn to play what I call the "base games". These are games that will be new to almost all the students. They are easy to learn and they don't require a ton of printed materials. Don't underestimate how important those things are. It took a lot of work to find good games that fit that criteria. Since the games are not about the course content, I try to make sure the students learn them and play them in just one class period.
• Students then complete some planning sheets that help them think about how they will add a theme to the base games. This is vitally important, since it's when students apply the lesson content to the game. For example, if the base game uses chips as points, the planning sheet will ask them to think about what the chips represent from the lesson content. Here's the planning sheet we used for groups that redesigned Love Letter. 
• Next, students edit the templates I provide for the cards in the various games. All templates are in Google Slides, so the tech is not a huge obstacle. Students can easily do a superficial change, by just making the cards be about their lesson content. If time allows, though, you can dig deeper into game design here, asking them to make changes to the effects of cards and the rules of the game. (Templates are found on my Project Pack site. I'll add more soon.)
• When the templates are finished, it's time to print them, cut them out and see how well they work. Through playing them with other groups, students get a good review of the lesson material. It also lets them see the importance of testing and revision in game design (or any design for that matter). If there's time, you can repeat the previous step and this one, allowing them to improve the games.
• At the end, I have students do a reflection sheet that seals the learning. I ask about what they learned from the content, how they tied it into their games, and what they learned about game design. I also get feedback from them about the project itself, so I can do better next time.

Example Games Created by Students

Here are two different games students created as part of this project. They are two of the five different styles of games we offered. I made a few edits to clean up these files, but the majority of work was from students.

• Mythology Love Letter Retheme - A light strategy game based on Love Letter. This video shows how to play the original game. (Thanks for AEG for permission to use their Love Letter game in this project.)
• Take Your Pick Mythology Version - This is a party game I designed. It's published by SimplyFun. This video from the publisher shows how to play the original game. You'd need more cards to play for very long.

What We Did Differently This Time and What I Learned

As I said, this is the first time I worked with a large class and gave them the option of choosing from several games. I presented many options for them for the first day, as they learned the base games. Among all the groups, they chose to learn four different ones. 

Teaching that many new games to six or seven groups in 40 minutes (and giving them time to play) is a huge task. I've used games in class for 25 years, so I know how to teach them quickly and effectively. You'll make your life easier if you pick one game everyone has to redesign. 

Two of the base games I taught that day--including one that got the most repeated play--are not posted online yet. I will add them to the list on my Project Packs site soon. 

I will also add a section to my site for Mythology class projects specifically. There I'll post all the planning sheets, templates and reflection sheets we used. (The ones there now are generic, so teachers can adapt them to any subject or lesson.)

Two groups decided to branch out and make a game completely different from those I presented. What they proposed fit my criteria (not much to print, easy to learn, etc.), so I encouraged it. Remember that only had about 2.5 class periods to actually make the game content. You can probably guess what happened with both of these groups' game ideas. They had fun working on them, but they didn't get far in that little time. 

In fact, feedback from many students was that they needed more time. Students could stretch a project like this out for weeks, and if you're teaching game design you would need that long. All things considered, though, the teacher and I decided the goal was met and it was time to move on.

One big change I'd make was to focus more on learning standards as I met and planned this with the teacher. It was not a loss, but I could have done better in that area. The teacher told me she was really glad to hear the review taking place as students tested their games. There was conversation throughout about various myths and personalities. Once I read over everyone's reflections, though, I realized review was the most they got from it. With more planning, we could have achieved deeper learning goals.

Summary of Tips for Success:

• Keep content the goal. Remind students of that. Games might not work as intended. Art and fonts might look terrible. Many groups won't completely finish their game. If students were talking about and thinking about the content in new ways, your goal was achieved. 
• If students feel they don't have enough time or their game isn't going as planned, remind them they can always work on it as a personal project. Here are some posts that include a lot of tips for students who are interested in making games.
• These game design projects could fit in any subject, but they work best if you just finished a story or you've studied a historical period. Language Arts and Social Studies classes are easiest to start with.
• If you care about proper use of digital resources, provide a list of sites students can use for free images. I include that on their planning sheets. (See my Love Letter Planning Sheet as an example of sites I listed.)
• Let a motivated small group go through a Project Pack first, then decide if you want to try it with more groups or a whole class.
• Choose the game they will redesign, rather than just throwing several options at them.
• Contact me if you have questions. I can provide a lot more examples and resources than what I have here or on my other site.

3 Tips for Getting Started With Game Design

These videos were already shared in previous posts from my game design club series, but I wanted to get them in them one place. (I compiled some related interviews in this post.)

My goal with these videos was to concisely state three tips that would help students start making game. I use them to make board and card games, but they will help with digital games too. In fact, they form the basis of design thinking in any area.

Tip 1:  Learn and play many games. But don't play mindlessly!

Tip 2:  Keep a design notebook. Besides writing down ideas, use it to flesh your ideas out too.

Tip 3:  Start playing right away. This includes some tips for making rough prototypes.

How to Start Making Games - Advice from Game Designers - Spring 2020

I already shared three of these four short videos in other posts, but I wanted to collect them in one. The past two months I ran a virtual game design club for middle school students and I interviewed two of my friends. (All posts in this series can be found here.)

Without any prep, they echoed the basic tips I had already shared with the group. (I'll soon gather those tips in a single post as well.)

The first interview is with Stephen Glenn. Several of his board and card games have been published worldwide. He addresses the following in the two-part interview.

• Why he still makes games
• How he gets ideas
• Playtesting
• Advice for young designers

The second interview is with Dominic Crapuchettes, of North Star Games. Dominic is probably the most successful game designer I can claim as a friend. I admire his dedication and approach to game design.

Similar to Stephen's interview, Dominic talked about:

• Why he makes games
• Ways he gets ideas
• The importance of dedication
• Testing
• Advice for young designers

Game Design Tip and Activities - Game Design Club 2020

This week I posted my final game design tip to the club and I posted a couple game design activities. I also recently finished up the second part of my interview with game designer, Stephen Glenn.

The Video

In this video about Tip #3 I talk about the importance of making a prototype and playing the game right away. It also talks a little about the vital practice of playtesting.

The tip as shown in the video lends itself toward board and card games, though I have read the same advice given to designers of digital games. This quick move to a rough prototype was something I started doing years ago. Recently I've heard it offered as good advice from many respected sources.

Here's the second part of the interview with Stephen, which supports much of what I said about playtesting in Tip #3.

The Game Design Activities

I wanted to post a digital and non-digital game design activity, so students could explore the type of game they prefer. For the digital one, I simply referred to this video I found on YouTube about making a Space Invaders style game using Scratch. I thought it was very well done.

For the non-digital game, I had asked students to learn a simple dice game, then consider how they would change it to create their own game. The directions can be found in this document.

Game Designer Interview and Original Digital Games Activity

This is part of a series of posts about the Game Design Club I am running for middle schoolers while school is closed.

Participation in the club was waning, so I made a simple activity for this week that asked students to play some digital games created in Scratch and answer some questions about them. It was meant to help them practice my Tip #1 (play and learn about as many games as possible). It also gives them a good idea what type of things they could program using Scratch.

Here's a copy of that activity.

I also finished up the first part of a second game designer interview this week. I'm really excited to share this one here and in the club. 

It's with my friend Dominic Crapuchettes. As I say in the interview, he is definitely one of the most talented, dedicated and successful game designers I know. His experience and skill is invaluable and I was so grateful he took the time to help us this way. Please watch the video and share it with anyone interested in the hobby of creating games.

In Part 1 of the interview, Dominic talks about why he's still making games and he shares three "templates" that he has used to create new, original games.

I plan to share the second part of this interview next week.

Continuing the Game Design Club for Middle School

Here are a few more resources from the virtual game design club I've been running at our middle school. If you want some background first, see my introduction and this first tip I shared with the students.

Last week I started a badge system and listed some achievements. This post explains how I make the badges and share them with students. As an example, the image at the right is a badge students can earn by telling me a few games they learned about after practicing Tip #1.

If we were meeting face to face I'd be playing new and unique games with them to help them expand their knowledge. As it is, I have to encourage research. I created this document to get them started. Some of those game suggestions came from designers I've been contacting. More information on my work with them will come in later posts.

I should add that it's been a big challenge to have to teach kids about games through reading and watching videos. I have not been effective at it so far, so I'm working on ways to improve that.

Finally, I introduced the Tip #2 video and asked them a few questions about it. The tip is to start keeping game ideas in a notebook. Not all designers do that, but it has been a practice of mine from the start and I find it invaluable. Here's the video.

And later this week I will post this video. It's the first part of an interview with Stephen Glenn, a friend and successful game designer who started taking the hobby seriously right about when I did. He's had several more games published over the past two decades than I have and I appreciated his willingness to share it with me and the club.

In this first four-minute interview he talks about why he still makes games (it's not for the money!) and he gives a little insight into how he gets ideas for games. We had some issues with video in our Google Meet, so most of the visuals in the interview are just slides summing up his points.

How to be a game designer - Tip #1

I recently wrote about the virtual game design club I'm running for students in grades 5 - 8. I'll regularly post my resources so you can do the same or a similar program with your students.

This week I posted the following video to teach them a good first step toward becoming a game designer. If you want the short version, Tip #1 is to learn about as many games as possible.

I also used this image to promote the club on our school's social media.

And coming up soon in the club:

• I'll post an activity later this week that will help them get started with the habit of learning about many games.
• I just finished my first game designer interview this week with a friend. I hope to have that edited soon.

Inspiring students when school is closed: Game Design Club for middle school

In Michigan our students will be out of school from March 13 through the end of summer. In an effort to inspire students to create and learn during this time, I revisited my idea of running a virtual game design club. Here's how I've started and a little about what I've learned.

I have big plans for the club, including:

• A short series of tips for being a game designer.
• Interviews through Google Meet with my friends who have made games.
• Helping students publish their games online, whether they make digital or non-digital games.
• Sharing everything we learn here on the blog, so students know there's a platform for the work we're doing.

First, I made a survey in Google Forms to check for interest. I asked our middle school teachers (grades 5 - 8) to post the survey in their Google Classrooms. The survey asked students about their favorite games, what types of games they'd like to make and what they hoped to get out of the club. In our school of about 360 students, I had 30 complete the survey. Most of those students were in grades 5 and 7. That's not many, but it was enough to get started.

I then created a class in Google Classroom. That's where we're managing all the classes at our secondary level. I invited the students who took the survey and I posted the introductory video below. I had a few goals with the video:

• I wanted to let students know the club is meant to encourage them to create rather than just consume entertainment.
• Of course a lot of the students are focused on making computer games. I normally design only board and card games. Programming can take a long time and be a challenge. I anticipate those being even more difficult obstacles as we work remotely. So I used this video to point out the huge number of games many people haven't discovered yet.
• I wanted to pose the "big question":  Do they want to make games badly enough to do the work required.

I made this video quickly, just talking as a clicked through a Google Slides presentation. (I started upping my game quickly for videos that I'll share soon.)

After watching the video, students were asked to complete another short Google Form. I asked the "big question" I referred to in the video. I also checked on their interest about making computer games versus board and card games.

Here are some things I've learned so far from this:

• As we knew already, it is a challenge to encourage engagement when grades and credit are removed from the equation. That's what they're used to and now the rules have changed. The open ended questions I asked were sometimes answered with just a word or short phrase. That's not uncommon even during normal school, but I expected a little more enthusiasm for the topic of games and game design. Some of them did answer with thought and excitement behind it, of course.
• Making engaging content is good practice for me. I hope to learn some tricks that helps me encourage the teachers I work with. It takes time and I wonder if what I'm putting into this club idea (not required for my job in any way) is sustainable. I completed the next video (which I'll write about in my next blog post). It was half as long and it took me probably four times longer to create.
• Students are open to creating simple board and card games, but most interest still is leaning toward computer games. I'm hopeful I can keep their attention on non-digital games, since I think those are faster to go from idea to playable game (at least before one knows how to program). I'm hoping that faster cycle will keep them excited enough to continue learning.

Up next, we'll look at my first tip for aspiring game designers. If you're interested in following along with this, please let me know in the comments or by email. Follow me on Twitter for updates too.

Thoughts on Game Based Learning and Gamifying the Classroom

I started this blog eight years ago as part of my master's program. As it changed over the years, I drifted quite a bit from my initial purpose of sharing my classroom games on it.

Of course, the ed-tech landscape has changed a lot since 2011. In my district at the time we had just installed a big round of interactive whiteboards. Only one or two teachers had an iPad. I had never touched a Chromebook and no school I knew of was using Google Apps for Education (as we called them when they first came along).

A decline in classroom games on interactive whiteboards is just a part of the overall trend I've seen in recent years. It's been a gradual shift away from the bells and whistles with more emphasis on the learning. Even though I'm a game designer and even though I had a blast in those years using those bells and whistles for fun projects, the shift toward effective use of tech for deeper learning has always been my real passion.

After returning from Michigan's largest ed-tech conference in March, I was thrilled to tweet this observation. 

The best thing for me about the sessions I attended at #macul19 was the focus on instruction, relationships and culture instead of the tech tools. Tech can support and amplify the things that matter most.

— Mike Petty (@mpetty39) March 24, 2019

But what does this changing landscape mean for a blog with "classroom games" right in the title? Will it necessarily be a thing of the past? I sure hope not!

As we know, right along with the other changes in the ed-tech landscape, we have heard more about gamifying the classroom or game based learning. I actually stayed away from those terms on this blog for the most part, at least in any formal sense. But now as trends change and my blog title stays the same, I figured I'd touch on them directly.

Defining the Terms

Some people have mistakenly referred to gamification of the classroom and game based learning as if they're the same thing. Gamification can be a form of game based learning, but it doesn't have to be. I'll define them this way:

• Game Based Learning - Using a game to teach a specific topic.
• Gamification of the Classroom - Using elements of successful games to increase student motivation and engagement.

So if I have students play an online game about genetics to learn about basic terms and concepts, that's Game Based Learning (GBL). In these cases the students could tell you the game they played and what they learned about the topic at hand after participating in the lesson. Though I often didn't use the term and didn't always specify the learning objectives, most of my games highlighted on this site lend themselves to these types of lessons.

Gamification, on the other hand, just borrows elements from games that make them fun and uses that in the classroom. So maybe we take something like leveling up, getting a new avatar or scoring points and we make ways to do that in science class over the course of a marking period. It might be giving students digital badges for meeting specific objectives. We don't necessarily stop and play a game to learn, but the lesson or the overall progression through the course might feel more like a game.

My Observations

After years of experimenting with these two concepts in classrooms, here are some general observations I've made:

• Students definitely learn from playing games. The challenge (and it's a big one) is to get them to learn what you want them to. I love games and I love playing them in school. They can be a distraction from the content, though, and any actual learning in that regard often is superficial.
• I maintain that gamification in education is nothing new. School has, in a sense, always been a game. What else can we call it when the players acquire points and earn scores, hoping for credit that at best abstractly reflects their knowledge and skills? One can cheat at chess and on a math test. When I would write my syllabus for high school math, I couldn't deny it felt a lot like writing rules for my game designs. So school has always been gamified. The problem is it hasn't been a very fun game. In fact by today's standards, where gaming outside of school is a huge industry grabbing the hearts and minds of so many of our kids, it's laughable to think of year-long courses and rewards of letter grades as parts of a game anyone would want to play. 
• So it isn't gamification that's new, it's that we have learned new things from modern, more engaging games.
• I have not been a fan of gamification, because it's essentially about extrinsic rewards. Certainly badges, upgraded avatars and grading systems based on big scores are more exciting than working for that A- in math. In the end, though, it's tacked on. Call me idealistic, but I still long for the day students will be excited about learning the subject because it can better their lives.
• While I don't embrace gamification as an approach to teaching, my experience with and study of it point to four very important elements of an engaging, effective learning experience. These same things come out of research that has nothing to do with games. So it's not the games that bring the magic to a good lesson. It's just that game designers have put that magic to use more effectively than most teachers have. The four elements are:
• A clear goal - Effective teachers make sure the students know where they are headed overall in their learning and what the goal is in the current lesson.
• Student agency - Students can have some choice and control in how they reach the goal (and possibly in how they show they reached the goal). 
• Appropriate challenges - Each student is learning at the point he or she needs to be learning. It's not too hard and it's not too easy.
• Timely, actionable feedback - The learner finds out quickly if he or she is on track and gets some information on how to get back on track when needed.

So there are a few statements about games on my blog about classroom games. Maybe that will provide fertile soil for further on-topic posts in the months ahead! If not, at least I had the foresight to put "and tech" in the title.

Twitter Chat About Playing Games and Making Games for Learning

On April 18 I moderated #6thchat. It was an excellent hour of discussion about playing and making games for learning. I wrapped up with a video and question about my Game Design Project Packs.

Here's the Storify archive. I realized afterward I didn't always use #6thchat on my replies, so they won't appear hear. You can see all replies if you expand a tweet that's part of a conversation.

Using Games and Game Design in the Classroom - a Twitter Chat on 4/18

I'm excited to say I'll be the guest moderator of #6thchat on April 18, from 9:00 PM -10:00 PM, EST.

The title of the chat will be Playing Games and Making Games (of all types) for Learning. Where will we go with such a broad topic? To give you an idea, here's some of my background in games and education.

I've loved playing games all my life. For as long as I remember, I've had a passion for learning new ones and for creating my own.

I have created some simple computer games, but board and card games are by far my favorite. My most popular designs have been party games and couple of them have been enjoyed by people all over the world.

As a former high school math teacher and now as an instructional tech coordinator, I shared my interest of all these games with students throughout the 23 years of my career. From digital to traditional, strategy board games to party games to role-playing games, I've explored their potential for learning, both in and out of the classroom.

I've used them as warm-ups, for creativity exercises and for critical thinking activities. I have also helped several teachers lead game design projects based on course content.

I'm convinced of the power of games when it comes to teaching and learning. At the same time, though, I've seen them used ineffectively in the classroom. I know it's possible to make a fun, popular game activity that doesn't result in the learning we need to see.

It's from this cautious optimism that I generated list of questions for the chat. I hope you will join us on 4/18 as we discuss effective ways to use games for learning!

And it won't be the primary focus, but I will talk about my Game Design Project Packs. Check out this post and the quick video below if you want to learn more about this fun activity for deep learning.

Announcing My Game Design Project Packs

This week I went live with my game design project pack website. You can check it out at ClassroomGameDesign.blogspot.com.

The project packs are collections of resources that help students make fun, simple games based on your lessons. Some key features are:

• Through group discussion and individual reflection, students will explore the class content in order to apply its themes to a simple, novel game.
• Creative teachers and students can use the project in many subjects, but they work best as creative projects for social studies and language arts.
• The games are non-digital, so you won't lose class time while students learn to program a computer.
• All resources are created in Google Apps, so it's easy to assign and students can collaborate on the games.
• The project is very flexible. Teachers can focus on the game design process as much or as little as they want.

Right now I have two project packs, both of which appeared on this blog in two series of posts. I plan to add at least two other packs by the end of the month.

Another part of the site I'm excited about is this page designed for students. It offers several resources for those who want to dig deeper into game design.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Reflection on Re-Designing Love Letter

This final stage of the project can be the most important, as it requires students to reflect upon what they learned about the lesson topic for your course as well as game design. In it each student Students will complete the document at the link below. 

Do not give students the document until they worked through Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the activity. That means they should have created a game based on the Love Letter game, tested it and played at least one game created by another group before they try to answer the questions. 

If you modified the activity in Parts 1 - 3 of the project, you might have to change the questions in the document to fit what your students experienced. Also, change the references to "the course topic" so they ask about the specific topic students studied in your class.

Through reflection, students should gain deeper insights from the activity. Their responses also provide you with a look at what they've learned about the lesson topic. That can be used to guide followup instruction or class discussion.

The reflection questions in the document come in three parts:

• The activity itself
• The game design process
• The lesson topic and how they connected elements of it to their game theme

You can find the Game Design Exploration Reflection Sheet here.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Printing and Testing the Games

This is the third part in a game design exploration based on the game Love Letter*. The activity would work well in any language arts or social studies class.

Be sure to see the previous posts in the series:

• Learning to play Love Letter
• Adding a new theme to Love Letter

In this stage, students will test the games. They might play their own game or just play each other's games. You could even incorporate revisions and further playtesting. It all depends on how much time you want them to spend on this. Details follow below.

Note that this post draws heavily from what I wrote in the playtesting stage of my first game design exploration from last year.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the Love Letter game to fit the lesson content. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class

• Created a title for their game

• Written a short introduction about the game

• Redesigned the cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series.

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Making the Cards

In the previous stage of this activity, students revised a template to create new cards based on the Love Letter game. Before they can test the games, they'll need to produce some cards they can actually play with. One way to do that is to print on card stock, but I've found it's easy to see through most card stock I've used over the years.

Whether it's a first draft or a late stage prototype, here's the method I've been using lately. 

• Buy some card protector sleeves like these, found on Amazon.
• Put an old playing card or some other game card in them that you won't need. This keeps them stiff enough to shuffle.
• Print your cards on paper and cut the cards out. (Or for first drafts, you might just write them by hand on slips of paper.)
• Slide those paper "cards" into the sleeves.

Here's a short video that I created for students that shows how I use this process with early and late stage prototypes.

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar with Love Letter, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their written rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

*Love Letter was designed by Seiji Kanai and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. I have permission from the publisher to use their game as I have in this exploration. Please consider supporting them by buying a copy of the game that your students can play as they learn the basic rules.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Adding a New Theme to Love Letter

This is the second part of my game design exploration based on the game Love Letter*. Be sure you and your students are familiar with Part 1 before you work through the activity below.

In this second step, students will add a new theme to the simple, fun game Love Letter. The theme will be based on a topic you are studying in class. This will work best in a language arts or social studies class, but you could definitely use it in other classes too.

In applying the theme, students will discuss people, events and other elements of your course content.

What Is Theme in a Game?

Theme is what the game is about. Not all games have a strong theme, but many popular ones do. The theme of Risk is world conquest. The theme of Monopoly is making money in real estate.

If you're familiar with the original Love Letter, that theme was to deliver a love letter to the Princess.

See Part 2 of my first game design exploration for more examples of theme in games.

Examples of variations on the Love Letter game

Love Letter has been such a popular game across the world that it already has some new themes and other variations based on it. Here are a few you could show students in class. You can click on some of the images on the pages below to see the similarities and differences between versions:

• Love Letter: Batman
• Love Letter: The Hobbit
• Lost Legacy - There are actually many Lost Legacy games, all of which use and extend the simple rules of Love Letter.

Adding a New Theme to Love Letter

After discussing themes in games and looking at the different versions of Love Letter, it's time for students to add a new theme to the game. The theme will be based on the lesson topic they've studied in class. 

The special Game Design Planning Sheet linked below will guide them through the process. Here are some things to keep in mind before assigning the planning sheet:

• The students will choose a theme that's related to your topic. The lesson might be about a book they just read, like The Odyssey, or maybe it will be about a historical event like The War of 1812. While they could use those entire topics as the theme, they also could choose a specific part of those topics. For example, they might focus on a climatic scene of the book or a particularly interesting battle of the war.
• The planning sheet will require them to name each card as something from their theme and to rename the tokens. Though not necessarily required, the sheet also suggests they make other changes to the effects and rules.
• The document has a link to the components for a very basic template of Love Letter cards. If students click it, they will get a copy of it as a Google Slides file. They can type their changes onto the cards (and they will print them in a later stage of the game).
• There are optional ideas listed on the second page of the planning sheet for students who want to explore game design further. Use them as appropriate for the age of your students and the needs of this project.

Click here to get a copy the Game Design Planning Sheet in your Google Drive.

In the next stage, we will look at how to make a playable copy of the new version of Love Letter. We'll also present some options for testing the games in class.

*Love Letter was designed by Seiji Kanai and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. I have permission from the publisher to use their game as I have in this exploration. Please consider supporting them by buying a copy of the game that your students can play as they learn the basic rules.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Love Letter

Several months ago I created a game design exploration that required students to redesign a simple game so it fit a topic they were studying. I'm now working on several Game Design Project Packs that include games of different types.

While most of these Project Packs will use simple games I created myself, this second installment uses a very popular new game called Love Letter. I do have permission from the publisher (Alderac Entertainment Group) to use the game this way.

For this first part of the game design exploration, students would learn how to play Love Letter and they'd play a few rounds.

The General Idea of the Project

You will want to know the overall flow of the activity. You can see my previous exploration as an example, or this short outline should suffice.

• Students study some topic in class. It could be anything really, but these activities lend themselves to people and events. Language arts and social studies classes are a good fit. Some of this part can happen concurrently with the following stages.
• Students learn and play a simple game.
• Using a planning sheet, they will apply a theme and possibly some new rules to that game so it fits the topic they're studying.
• Depending on how much time you want them to spend on this project, you can follow up with some playtesting and further development.
• A reflection sheet allows students to think deeply about the course topic and game design in general.
• Further resources are available for students who want to dig deeper and possibly print a quality copy of their game.

Getting a Copy of the Game

Like all the games in these projects, Love Letter uses few components and it can be played in about 15 - 30 minutes. In fact, the entire game has only 16 cards in it! (It's in a genre of modern games known as micro-games.)

I strongly encourage teachers to buy a copy of the game for students to play. The original Love Letter has spawned several different variations including a Batman and a Hobbit version. All are essentially the same and any would work for this project.  Here's one link to the original version for less than $10. (Just don't mistakenly get one of the more expensive, harder to find early editions of the game.)

I do have a template (linked below) to the basic cards. Students will use that template in Part 2 of this exploration, but it would be possible to play the game by printing that template on card stock.

How to Play

Here is a video I created (with some help from my wife for narration) that shows how to play the game. You could show this in class or just watch it yourself and explain the game to the students. All the rules take less than two minutes to explain.

If you want to read the full rules, here is a PDF from the publisher.

Playing the Game

I recommend for this activity that the students only play the game enough to get the general idea. They don't have to play a full game, as described in the video. A few rounds should be sufficient.

As I mentioned above, I did make this template so students can modify the game in the second part of this activity. If you want to use this to make a very plain (and boring!) version of the game to use in class, you could print it on card stock and cut out the cards. (More information will be given later for ways students can make prototypes of their game without using card stock.)

Next...

See the second part of the activity here. In it, students explore underlying concepts and elements of your lesson topic by adding a new theme to Love Letter.

Question and Answer Sessions with Game Designers

I worked with students in our game design virtual club to generate a list of questions to send to game designers. Here are two replies that I received. In each video the designer answers several questions.

The first response is from John du Bois. He is the designer of Avignon: A Clash of Popes, a game that was successful on Kickstarter earlier this year.

He answered these questions from my group, as well as some from a game design class taught by Kevin Crowther:

• How do you know if a game you are working on is good?
• Do the rules of games have to follow certain guidelines or can they be however the designer wants them to be?

The second video is from David Whitcher. Several of David's games have been published, with the most recent one, Star Trek: Five Year Mission, making a big splash at GenCon last year.

He answered these questions and a few from the other class:

• What kinds of games do you think publishers want? And what are some types you think they don't want?
• What software and books do I need to get started?

David told me later that the free online class he referred to is from this site. He said it is for both digital and non-digital games and it should be good for beginners. He did point out that he disagreed with the way they used the term "playtesting". Both David and I (in all materials I've written for this blog) use it to refer to the process of testing the game.

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 4 - Making a prototype and testing it

Here's my fourth installment in my series of videos for the virtual club I'm running in Google Classroom. This time I talk about my favorite part of game design - making prototypes and testing them.

Most of the video is about making a quick, playable copy of the game. I only touch on the iterative process of testing, tweaking and playing some more.

Our school year is coming to a close, but if we get time my next video will be about creating a print-and-play version of a game.

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 3 - Developing your ideas

I've been running a virtual club about game design for some middle school students. The first post in the series is here.

Below I have the video I created for the third step in the game design process. In it I show students how to use my Game Idea Template to develop their ideas.

(If you're interested in seeing the template, it's here. I wrote this post about it a couple years ago.)

Click here to see the next post in this series - How to make a prototype and test it

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 2

I wrote last week about the virtual club I'm running through Google Classroom. It's for a small group of middle school students. Our goal is to design games and to publish them in a print-and-play format.

Here's the second video in the series of short lessons I'm taking them through. This time I talk about ideas and the importance of writing them down.

The next step will be to develop some of the more promising ideas. You can see that post here.

We are also in the process of creating a list of questions to send to successful game designers. When we agree on the questions, I will send those to some of my friends who have enjoyed success with game design. I'll post their videos here as I get them.